CHICAGO — In our “app-powered” economy, adding a residential pickup and delivery service expands a store’s reach, boosts turns per day and increases revenue. But just what does it take to get such a service up and running?

American Coin-Op spoke with a trio of store owners who offer pickup and delivery service. Each has a slightly different approach but all agree that our society’s affection for all things convenient makes now a perfect time to offer pickup and delivery.

BRANDING AND EXPANSION

Omar Kasi, who owns four Bubbles & Suds Laundromat locations in the Bay Ridge and Sunset Park areas of Brooklyn, New York, and Daniel Sofranko, owner of Perfect Wash Express Laundry Center in Huntington Beach, California, offer their pickup and delivery services under the banners of their Laundromats.

“Being in business for a little while at that point and having two stores when we started it, I believe we had a nice, loyal customer base,” Kasi says. “I wanted to continue that and let customers know that it was still us. … Why put it under a different name? That might confuse some customers.”

“I played around the idea of both. … Ultimately, we decided to separate the two because, although they’re being processed through the same facility, they are two completely different entities,” Menz says. “They’re two different businesses. And they’re marketed toward two different clienteles. I mean, there’s really nothing about them that is the same, other than it’s laundry. That’s it.”

Menz isn’t concerned about expansion.

“We definitely have the capacity to do four or five times the volume we’re doing now,” he says. “Right now, we’re only doing pickups four days a week. … We have a tremendous amount of capacity. That’s not an issue for us.”

Additionally, he’s in the process of building a fifth store that will be larger in size and capacity than his current largest store. Once it’s done, he’ll be dividing the Laundry Magician work between it and the current site.

‘ON THE RIGHT TRACK’

“One of the things we found … is that there weren’t that many people doing it,” Menz says. “Even three years ago to now, the number of people doing pickup and delivery is astronomically different. It has grown so much in a very short period of time, and that just confirms that we’re on the right track.”

Menz believes pickup and delivery will be a $5 million business in Cincinnati alone.

“Just to give you an idea … we haven’t even completed our second year of business and in delivery business alone, we’re going to reach right around the half-million-dollar mark in 2018. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

“We launched at just the right time where society’s mentality of how they’re serviced has shifted to a point there this is normal and very acceptable.”

About the author

Bruce Beggs is editorial director of American Trade Magazines LLC, including American Coin-Op, American Drycleaner and American Laundry News. He was the editor of American Laundry News from November 1999 to May 2011. Beggs has worked as a newspaper reporter/editor and magazine editor since graduating from Kansas State University in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications. He and his wife, Sandy, have two children.